


Nirn Black Ops: Numbers of Sithis

by WAR10CKcrimsondemon



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Cryptography, Dark Brotherhood - Freeform, Gen, Radio, Shortwave, Technomancers, assassinations, numbers stations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2146878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WAR10CKcrimsondemon/pseuds/WAR10CKcrimsondemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Guild of Technomancers has a person they need taken care of so they have enlisted the help of the Dark Brotherhood to do their wet work for them. But they have a very unusual method of delivering contracts. It may seem overly complicated but it is utterly secure. They have many secrets that they don't want getting out and are masters at the art of cryptography, computers, security, hacking, and modding. Pretty much anything to do with technology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nirn Black Ops: Numbers of Sithis

`LOCATION: Guild of Technomancers Par:AnoIA HQ, Undisclosed Location, Cyrodiil Sector.`

_"Sweet mother, Sweet mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."_

It has been only 12 hours since these words were uttered by the Guild of Technomancers Par:AnoIA Tamriel Director of Clandestine Operations. Now a shadowy figure in a black hooded outfit has appeared in the Par:AnoIA Basement. The Director approaches him and speaks.

"I assume you are the Speaker answering our prayer?" 

"Yes I am. The Brotherhood is here to serve you." the figure said.

"Good. Yes it is with our unfortunate circumstances that we must resort to having someone rubbed out again. We don't know exactly where the individual lives in this case. It is always traveling out and about. Perhaps you could ask around the Imperial City for more information." the director said with a reluctant tone.

"I take it that you don't like having people killed?" the Speaker asked.

"No. Absolutely not! We think it is totally barbaric and wasteful. But every once in a blue moon we are into a position with which we are left with no other options. Anyway, this will be the standard contract commission of 1000 gold and here is your decode sheet." the director said as he handed him a sheet of paper.

*One-Time Cypher Sheet added.*

The paper had the following printed on it:  
`  
Cypher/Group: 62052/62`

`47584 12238 43763 00852 24640 12634 62157 20178 50820 21783`  
`87141 07377 57651 23106 76106 54657 24722 27118 14603 68435`  
`14128 06840 28384 24360 77861 88484 36812 87050 28365 78524`  
`55080 56558 75405 65613 20887 82413 20726 78542 70378 03010`  
`85822 72206 06604 81134 78462 28014 46366 37483 27555 33054`  
`81533 13548 61236 36008 01524 41305 41088 16060 73663 66174`  
`22038 16771 68042 21866 17014 46324 11385 68886 40211 40816`  
`00777 24472 46265 26051 70473 68250 72300 33853 88514 82831`  
`70068 83437 47605 07837 83024 82135 88412 71321 10674 18764`  
`85135 07857 03718 54801 76048 02166 84458 70152 05577 22486`  
`11377 88334 46061 05031 62340 56365 31271 27613 51885 23537`  
`30171 64582 60656 58853 44861 52678 36568 20724 01523 25736`  
`71176 31860 25448 83635 26288 37312 53210 37130 65163 33452`  
`80410 62316 27584 52614 41218 06254 02755 43221 66530 16343`  
`05030 61426 56087 61825 65665 83041 74220 13724 77411 18332 `

`DESTROY IMMEDIATELY AFTER USE!`

"The actual contract will be sent via a shortwave radio transmission on the frequency 3133.7 kHz at approximately 12:00 PM Sundas. You will need this sheet to decode the contract. Once the contract is decoded, destroy this decode sheet immediately to insure that it remains a secret." he instructed the speaker as he handed him the bag full of gold as payment for the contract.

"Why all this just to arrange a contract?" asked the speaker who has dealt with this before but does not know why this unusual method is being used.

"Because this way, it cannot be traced back to anyone. Once the transmission is sent across the air waves then as far as anyone knows, it could be destined for anyone, anywhere. It is impossible to trace a message sent like this." the director explained.

"And this One-Time Cypher Sheet?" asked the speaker.

"The only thing that can decode the message. We are using this system to send you contracts because the messages are perfectly secret and secure. Every Cypher is a one time deal. They are generated in a totally random manner. It is completely impossible to crack the code unless you have the original Cypher used to decode it and that changes with each broadcast." the director said. The speaker then disappeared as mysteriously as he came.  
____________________________________________________________  
  
`LOCATION: Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, Undisclosed Location  
Sundas 12:00 PM`

Listening to the frequency 3133.7 kHz on the shortwave radio. The contract begins broadcasting.  
  
`Echelon! 62052/62 'this number repeats 20 times'`  
`Ascension!`  
`46278 50775 49248 49285 74486 29155 45698 66322 68470 93152`  
`66707 22713 07733 69802 91453 53961 05358 05382 20239 09991`  
`20621 02898 19216 69492 23987 65303 93245 52033 09810 77277`  
`92146 36459 33495 29210 27613 01349 70653 12721 47522 75264`  
`50678 11394 84664 41684 70967 83773 43727 90792 28246 14172`  
`01478 34752 14959 93085 74755 59074 49650 19467 56451 16834`  
`13655 78956 61041 38216 14823 13710 89547 13842 99989 46484`  
`75418 05618 26667 22376 59619 99687 57728 20979 69615 26528`  
`37570 46655 47207 66731 46090 90873 59116 18741 63274 14244`  
`50872 86071 39782 39799 82421 05052 48561 38577 06152 85441`  
`27023 08059 39943 54027 75286 44225 52183 65306 56744 84457`  
`52768 43547 42137 21598 49411 49339 29304 65545 02316 82258`  
`11763 76269 82816 46409 74961 70242 03960 41160 18029 42902`  
`11597 55201 60340 22686 34161 94681 98178 04257 63541 41637`  
`13361 39357 22702 46712 34421 55334 26503 61714 61480 82678`  
`Ascension!`  
`'numbers repeat a second time'`  
`Finale! Finale!`

Using the One-Time Cypher Sheet provided by the client the Speaker decrypts the contract and reads it.

`THERE IS AN IMPERIAL KNOWN AS ANTONIUS PONIUS WHO HAS BEEN INTERFERING WITH THE GUILD OF TECHNOMANCERS BY USING THE IMPERIAL LEGION TO PERSECUTE ALL TECHNOMANCERS AND HAVE THEM IMPRISONED AND TORTURED TO DEATH IN SECRET. WE HAVE PRESENTED SOLID EVIDENCE TO HIS SUPERIORS AND THEY REFUSE TO LISTEN TO OUR CASE. WE ARE LEFT WITH NO OTHER OPTIONS. HE MUST BE ELIMINATED. HOWEVER IT MUST BE DONE IN AN HONORABLE FASHION. CHALLENGE HIM TO SINGLE COMBAT. KILL HIM WITH DIGNITY. `

After the contract is decoded and read the Speaker throws the both the message and One-Time Cypher Sheet into the fireplace and burns it into nothing. Now no one will ever be able to read the message. 

Now he heads over to one of his fellow family members to have contract carried out.

End of line.  
_____________________________________________________

`Meanwhile this newspaper is being distributed around the Imperial City:`

Black Horse Courier

SPECIAL EDITION - CYBERPUNKS SENDING CODED ORDERS TO NIGHT MOTHER - "But we have no idea if it is true or just irrational paranoia" - says the Imperial Legion.

The Commander of the Imperial Legion is accusing the Guild of Technomancers of using secret Radio Stations to send encrypted contracts to the Dark Brotherhood.

Over the past month multiple suspected assassinations have taken place across Cyrodiil with no verifiable traces back to anyone. However it was discovered that before each one took place, radio spooks have reported hearing strange broadcasts of voices calling out strings and strings of random numbers on obscure frequencies across the bands. They are known as the Numbers Stations. According to some people who have spent years listening to these transmissions said they don't know when these started but you can hear them from Morrowind all the way to Skyrim.

However no one in the empire seems to know exactly who is running them or what their purposes are. In fact hardly anyone in all of Tamriel even knows they exist. Even the Elder Council has no idea that these stations exist. There are no books or articles that talk about them. You can't even find any information about them unless you go digging deep into the shadow world and even then what is known is very limited. Governments are even in the dark about them or so they say.

"These Numbers Stations are believed to be encrypted messages being sent to spies in the field however there is no way to prove this claim to be true because these stations are totally anonymous and so are the broadcasts. We have some ideas as to who could be running certain ones but it is all just speculation." Said Albert Aethelred of the Konec Group.

As for the messages themselves, the Black Horse Courier has discovered that no one has ever been able to decode a Numbers Station Message, EVER! This indicates that the encryption system could be the so called One-Time Pad that the Konec Group claims that they are using. The One-Time Pad is the only cipher in the world that is completely unbreakable when used correctly.

"Is the Dark Brotherhood using Numbers Stations? I have no doubt in my mind that they are using them in some capacity. It is clearly a simple but totally secure method of sending secret messages without compromising anyone. What they are using them for I can think of based on the timing of certain transmissions is indeed contracts for assassinations by somebody somewhere in the world. But there are others that don't seem to fit this pattern. In fact a majority of the suspected Dark Brotherhood murders don't fit this pattern. So there is a chance that other stations might be used for different purposes by different parties." said Adamus Phillida Commander of the Imperial Legion. 

According to the Konec Group's website there are a different types of stations that we have identified and they all have a similar shape to them. Each has a call sign, a header, interval signal, then the numbers start, finally a sign off signal. These numbers are broadcasted in a voice, in Morse code, or some kind of digital noise or polytone. The group has suspected that there are certain stations that are run by the following organizations:

The Dark Brotherhood  
The Mythic Dawn  
The Thieves Guild  
The Blades  
The Guild of Technomancers  
and the Morag Tong

"But there may be more that we don't know about." said the group.

So far the Guild has not gone on the record to even deny them. They are remaining silent on the matter and not even acknowledging their existence. The Black Horse Courier has been unable to get any definite responses from them.

"We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of these so called Numbers Stations as you are calling them. Other then that, we have nothing to say." said Guild Master Darken Rahl. 

If these Numbers Stations are indeed being used by the Guild of Technomancers, the Dark Brotherhood, or some other secret organization such as the Blades who's existence was confirmed by some top secret documents posted on WikiLeaks Tamriel by some anonymous individual, to us and the empire as a whole it will so far remain a mystery.

**Author's Note:**

> The word Technomancer is something I pulled out of my ass to serve as fancy and more fantasy sounding term for Hacker or Cyberpunk. Just like Necromancy is the art of manipulating the dead, Technomancy is the art of manipulating technology. Essentially they are the people who bring Information Technology and Computers to the planet Nirn.
> 
> This story involves Numbers Stations. This one in the story is called Echelon Acension.


End file.
